New and prospective players often feel that this game is or is becoming unapproachable simply because the card pool is getting large. They reason that to play the game well, you need to know all of the cards, and that task is so daunting that they give up. This thread is my effort to help with that problem.

It helps to know all of the cards, but as a practical matter, you only worry about a few of them. This is my effort to compile a list of the cards that you should be thinking about whenever you play the game, cards to important that their mere existence changes the way Netrunner works. When I play against a new player, if I have any of these cards in my deck (and I inevitably do), I usually warn them. That way they don't get blindsided and lose the game out of simple ignorance.

Listed here are the runner cards that the corporation has to think about when he’s building his servers.

EVENTS THAT ALLOW THE RUNNER TO PUNCH INTO AN IMPENETRABLE SERVER

Inside JobThis is one of the fundamental Criminal cards, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a criminal deck without three of them. It allows you to bypass the outermost piece of ice, so a single ice server is never fully secure, and a double ice server isn’t secure unless you can rez both pieces of ice. To counter, corps often build remote servers against criminal with one big piece of ice, and something small and cheap in front of it.

StimhackThis is an Anarch card, but it costs so little influence that it pops up everywhere. It gives the runner 9 credits that they can use to run, at the cost of one brain damage. This card is the reason you sometimes put traps or economic assets facedown in “impenetrable servers”, hoping that the runner will fire off their stimhack without getting any points.

TinkeringThis card allows a Shaper with any breaker to break any piece of ice. I play against this roughly the same way I play against stimhack. Sometimes putting down cards in impenetrable servers that don’t belong there.

Test Run/Femme FataleTest run is a shaper card that allows you to find and install a card for 3 for one turn, femme fatale is a criminal program that everyone of all factions runs that allows you to bypass any one piece of ice. This behaves sort of like tinkering, except it can be cheaper if you have one big ice in a server.

The moral of the story is, no server is impenetrable, the runner can throw down one card from his or her hand, and punch through any defence you have. Never treat your server like it’s invincible, because it isn’t.

CRIMINAL CARDS THAT SCREW WITH THE REGULAR FLOW

Account SiphonAccount siphon is a criminal card that makes a run on HQ and steals five credits, giving the runner 10. Every criminal plays three copies of this card, and it’s amazingly powerful. You can defend against it in a few ways.

1. Have unrezzed assets/upgrades. When the criminal is about to access HQ, spend all your money rezzing them, so that you have nothing to steal.2. Have Trace Ice on HQ. If you have 5 credits, but you can spend a couple on a trace before the runner can steal them, they may choose to access cards instead of siphoning. Generally I spend down to 3 credits if I started with 5 or 6, that way the runner has a real dilemma when they make it to HQ.3. Defend HQ. Seriously, when you’re playing against criminal, defend HQ. It’s really important.

Sneakdoor BetaSneakdoor beta is a criminal card that allows the criminal to run archives in order to access HQ. Generally the corp doesn’t have to protect archives that much, but against a criminal you have to. Eventually they will play sneakdoor, so be sure to ice up archives early. You don’t have to rez that ice until they sneakdoor it, so it doesn’t cost much.

Emergency ShutdownEmergency shutdown is a criminal event that derezzes a piece of ice if the runner can get to HQ. As a practical matter, between inside job, sneakdoor beta, and all the rest of the criminal nonsense, you can’t keep them out of HQ if they really want to get it. This means that big ice that isn’t protecting HQ is highly vulnerable to being shut down, so think twice before spending your last credit to rez a Hadrian’s Wall on a remote server. The defense against this is to use lots of small ice, instead of a few pieces of big ice.

Forged Activation OrdersForged Activation Orders is an event that forces the corp to either rez a particular piece of ice or trash it. As if the corp didn't already have enough problems with playing big ice against criminals, this punishes them for having big ice on the table before they can pay for it. Even worse, it combos with emergency shutdown, so you can have a piece of ice turned facedown and killed. As with emergency shutdown, the best response is to simply not rely on big ice too much against criminals, but if you have big ice facedown on the table, then be ready to either rez it or lose it, because eventually the runner will FAO it.

OTHER CARDS THAT THE RUNNER USES TO BREAK THE RULES

ParasiteParasite is an anarch card that destroys ice over time. It’s amazing, so every anarch runs it, and many non-anarchs run it. This card is the reason to avoid relying too much on low strength ice. Contrary to the advice for Emergency Shutdown above, big ice is very effective against parasite. I tend to use big ice much more against anarchs than I do against criminals.

Medium/R&D InterfaceThese cards generally don’t come as a surprise, since you have to have them on the table before they do anything, but new players often don’t realize how powerful they are. Both of these are cards that allow the runner to access multiple cards per run if they hit R&D. THESE CARDS WILL CAUSE THE RUNNER TO WIN IF HE CAN USE THEM REPEATEDLY. To counter them, defend R&D. Seriously, R&D is really really important.And that’s about it for the corp! Out of well over a hundred runner cards, you really only have to know about ten or so before you start playing as corp. That doesn’t sound so daunting, does it?

Cards to bear in mind as Runner

Runners have to remember more corp cards, because a runner often finds himself hitting a facedown card. As a runner, you usually have to think about how much money the corp has, and what he’s likely to hit you with.

MID-COST ICE

Most of the ice you really have to worry about are sentries, so in many games getting something to break sentries is a early game priority. This can either be a dedicated sentry breaker, or an AI breaker than can break anything, generally Crypsis.

Neural KatanaThis is a big one. It’s a jinteki 3 str sentry that costs 4 to rez, and it does three net damage. DO NOT RUN AGAINST JINTEKI WITH FEWER THAN THREE CARDS IN HAND. If the corp has fewer than 4 credits, then you don’t have to worry as much. If jinteki has 4 or more credits, and you hit a facedown piece of ice, then the bad luck goblins cause it to be a neural katana 100% of the time. If your hand sucks, then you don’t have to worry as much about the discards, but if you have a good hand, for instance your opening hand, then be very wary about face-checking jinteki ice. Also, since this gets taken out of faction a lot, you should be wary about running on facedown ice with only two cards in hand, no matter the faction.

RototurretThis is a Haas-Bioroid str 0 sentry that costs 4 and destroys a program. Many a shaper has played magnum opus the first turn, only to run into a rototurret and lose it. If you’re running against Haas-Bioroid, and you have a program you want to keep, you should get a sentry breaker before facechecking ice. As with neural katana, this isn’t a concern if the corp has fewer than 4 credits. As with neural katana, this is often taken out of faction, so be wary when you have a program, you have no sentry breaker, and the corp has 4 credits.

IchiThis is a Haas-Bioroid str 4 sentry that costs 5 and can destroy two programs. On the other hand, you can break its subroutines with clicks. This is a good reason to always run on your first or second click if you can, rather than your 3rd or 4th click. As with Rototurret, this comes up out of faction a lot, but nearly all Haas Bioroid decks have it, so be especially careful about running early against Haas Bioroid.

ArcherArcher is a Weyland str 6 sentry that kills two programs and ends the run. It costs 4 to rez, and makes the corp forfeit an agenda. Archer wins games for the corp, be aware! Generally Weyland will score something small, like a posted bounty or a hostile takeover, and then forfeit it to hit you with Archer. If Weyland has an agenda scored, especially if it’s a 1 point agenda, you probably want a lot of money on hand in order to counter a potential archer. This can come up out of faction too, but it’s ubiquitous in Weyland.Basically, if the corp has 4 credits, then there’s nasty ice he can rez and you should watch out. Ichi costs 5, so watch out for that too.

EXPENSIVE ICE

There’s a lot of ice that costs 8 credits. Tollbooth, Wall of Thorns, and Heimdall are very common. If a corp has a piece of ice that he’s not rezzing when he has five, six, or sever credits, there’s a very good chance that it costs 8. If you can keep the corp below 8 credits, then there’s a good chance that you can stop him from rezzing his big stuff. Try to do this.

ADVANCABLE TRAPS

Many corp decks run advancable traps. A standard tactic is to throw one down and advance it twice in a server that the corp has played agendas in before. They’re all brutal, and you never want to run into any of them.

Project JunebugThis Jinteki asset does two damage per advancement token, meaning if it has 3 or more tokens it often leads to death. It costs a credit to activate though, so if Jinteki is broke you can usually run its servers with impunity. Because of this card, Jinteki will often play cards unprotected and advance them, figuring you’ll be too scared to run them. A good counter is something like account siphon that bleeds jinteki of its funds, followed by a bunch of quick runs on all the remotes. Another good counter is Infiltration, a card that allows you to see what a facedown card is. Finally, if you hit this card in HQ or R&D, it can’t hurt you, so central runs are awesome.

Aggressive SecretaryThis Haas Bioroid asset destroys a program for each advancement token. It can absolutely cripple you, and for this reason it is often run out of faction, particularly in Weyland decks. You can play against it the same way you’ld play against junebug: drain the corp below its activation cost (2), use reveal effects, run centrals, and sometimes don’t run on advanced facedown cards.

Ghost BranchThis is an NBN card that gives you a tag for each advancement. Unfortunately, it’s free, so you can’t drain the corp and then run it with impunity. The best defense is to run on the first click, so you have time to drop the tags if you get them. This sometimes gets run out of faction, particularly in Weyland. If you see this card out of faction, it means that the corp has some way to punish tags, so be extra careful to drop your tags.

OTHER TRAPS

SnareSnare is a Jinteki card that costs the corp 4 when you hit it, and does 3 damage and give a tag. It triggers no matter where you hit it, so R&D or HQ can hurt you. For this reason, against jinteki in particular, but against everyone if possible, you really shouldn’t be running if you have fewer than 3 cards in hand. If the corp has fewer than 4 credits, it isn’t a concern, so if the corp is broke, you should go crazy with the runs. Special note, if you’re using something like medium or R&D interface, then you run the risk of hitting multiple snares at once. If the corp has 8 credits, then cards that see a lot of R&D or HQ simultaneously are risky, especially against Jinteki. You see Snare out of faction a lot though, so be aware.

Edge of WorldEdge of the World is a Jinteki card, but it is used almost exclusively out of faction. It does one brain damage for every ice in you had to pass to get to it. That can add up to a lot of brain damage. This card is the main reason why you should be wary of running on a facedown unadvanced card in a deep server, especially if the corp doesn’t have a ton of money and the ice is unrezzed. As with snare, this card has an activation cost (3). If the corp is broke, go crazy.

Fetal AIFetal AI is a Jinteki agenda, meaning it cannot be played out of faction. It does two damage to you when you access it, and then costs two to steal (doing another damage if they’re running core Jinteki). You really shouldn’t run on Jinteki with fewer than 3 cards in hand, because of snare and neural katana. Fetal AI is nasty because it doesn’t cost the corp a thing. Basically, you’re going to take the damage, so my advice is to always have enough cards in hand when you access (often you jack out of a run if it causes you to go below 3 cards in hand), and to try to always have 2 credits handy so you can steal a fetal AI.

Hokusai GridHokusai Grid is a jinteki (notice a pattern?) upgrade that does a damage when you run the server. Basically, if a jinteki server has an upgrade, it’s safe to assume it’s a Hokusai grid. If the corp has enough credits to rez it (2) then you want to have an extra card in hand and four credits to trash it.

Bernice MaiBernice Mai is an NBN upgrade that can give you a tag when you hit it. Basically, it’s dangerous to run NBN on your last click, because then you won’t be able to drop a tag if you get one.Not running on your last click is good advice for any faction, but because of cards like Bernice, it’s particularly important against NBN.

AGENDAS

There are three agendas that I really worry about letting the corp score. You don’t want the corp to score anything, and many agendas are dangerous, but I actively think about these ones when I watch the corp’s actions.

Posted BountyPosted Bounty is a Weyland agenda, which the corp can sacrifice when they score it to give you a tag. There are terrible things that can follow a tag, so if Weyland lays down a card and advances it twice, it might be a posted bounty. There are a few defenses. Decoy and New Angeles City Grid will prevent the tag from getting to you, and running the agenda successfully will obviously steal it. If you have reason to believe the corp can punish tags (and if they’re Weyland, they probably can), then you should watch out for Posted Bounty.

Breaking NewsBreaking News is an NBN agenda that is sort of like posted bounty, except way better. It only costs two, so a common NBN trick is to put it out one turn, and then advance it twice the next turn, leaving a click for shenanigans. This is nearly unstoppable, because a runner can rarely afford to run every single unadvanced card on the board. Essentially, against NBN, be away that you’re going to get tagged at some point, and try not to be in a situation where those tags will cause you to lose.

RoninRonin isn't technically an agenda, but it behaves very much like one. It is a Jinteki asset that you advance 4 times, and then you can spend it and a click to deal three net damage. This is generally combined with Neural EMP to cause a quick death. Basically, if Jinteki has something with a bunch of tokens on it, but they haven't scored it, it might not be a Junebug. To counter Ronin, run when Jinteki is broke, reveal their advanced cards, and keep cards in your hand.

OPERATIONS

I saved the best for last, these are cards that the corporation can play on their turn that will absolutely wreck you.

Scorched EarthThis is the big one, the card everyone needs to know about, and the card that you will eventually feel the heat of. It’s a Weyland operation that does 4 meat damage if the runner is tagged. It’s safe to assume that any weyland player is running it, and if you’re playing against NBN or Jinteki and don’t see any out of faction influence after a few turns you should start getting worried. To counter it, try not to have fewer than 4 cards in hand against Weyland, and don’t end your turn with a tag against Weyland. You also can use Plascrete Carapace, or less effectively Decoy or Crash Space to try to survive a Weyland assault.

Neural EMPNeural EMP is a jinteki operation that does a damage. Generally, Jinteki uses this to finish off the runner if the runner has no cards in hand, or Jiteki uses two or three of them if the runner has one or two cards. Basically, don’t end your turn with an empty hand against Jinteki. As a general rule, since it’s so easy to lose cards against Jinteki in a run, you want to not run as your last click against Jinteki unless you have a lot of cards in hand.

Closed AccountsClosed Accounts is an NBN operation that makes the runner lose all their money if they’re tagged. This is pretty vicious, and combined with Breaking News it’s actually really hard to defend against. Basically, it’s one more reason to not end your turn with tags, which means it’s one more reason to not run on your last action.

SEA SourceAs if Breaking News and Posted Bounty weren't enough, SEA Source is an operation that lets the corp tag the runner if the runner made a successful run the previous turn. It's generally used by NBN or Weyland, and often in combination with Scorched Earth or Closed Accounts. The best counter to SEA Source is to be richer than the corp. If you know the corp have a scorched earth or two in hand, you may consider taking a bunch of money before running. That way, when they try to SEA source you, you'll be able to beat the trace.

PsychographicsPsychographics is an NBN operation that allows the corp to advance a card quickly if the runner has many tags. A common strategy is to start ignoring tags once you have enough of them, especially if you’re confident that the corp isn’t running Scorched Earth. Psychographics is NBN’s answer to this strategy. As a rule of thumb, you shouldn’t completely ignore tags against NBN unless you can consistently hit R&D hard enough to be sure that the corp won’t be drawing any agendas, you’re sure you’re about to win, or you have absolutely no other choice.

There you have it! About ten cards for the corp to worry about and about twenty cards for the runner to worry about. A lot of those cards are faction-specific, so you only have to think about them in certain games, and a lot of them have the same counters (Don’t run on your last click, get a sentry breaker out fast, etc.). I suppose that writing a three thousand word document to convince people that a game is accessible and doesn’t require a lot of study probably isn’t the best method, but that’s life.

I’m sure I missed some important ones from this list, so please add to the comments section anything that I should add.

If you underline or bold (or both!) the card titles it will make this much easier to read.

Thanks!I don't actually expect anyone to read it, this is more therapy for me to relieve the irritation of the posts of "Bah, this game has 200 cards, it's impossible to start now". With a little bit of formatting though, maybe it will be possible to skim!

Crypsis means that if the Runner has the credits, they'll access anything within a server that has 4-5 ice on it.

Yog.0 means that most of your Code Gates will become dead cards mid-late game, possibly even on turn 1...

::edited a few times for redundancy::

I thought about those two, also Darwin (which is becoming pretty common in my meta), and Faerie. I didn't include them, because usually they don't come as a surprise. Sure, if I know about Yog, I might not rely on enigma to keep a server secure forever, but honestly, I'm not going to rely on any piece of small ice to secure anything forever. Similarly for Crypsis. They make a big difference if you're building a deck, but in mid-game you can safely assume that the runner will have breaker eventually, and the particular breaker is just a matter of efficiency.

Hmm, that's borderline. Datasucker often floats around for a couple turns before it suddenly gets big and punches through. It's an amazing card, but usually it doesn't come as a surprise. On the other hand, if the runner has a grimoire and a bunch of fixed strength breakers, then playing a datasucker from hand can suddenly make the difference.

If you underline or bold (or both!) the card titles it will make this much easier to read.

Thanks!I don't actually expect anyone to read it, this is more therapy for me to relieve the irritation of the posts of "Bah, this game has 200 cards, it's impossible to start now". With a little bit of formatting though, maybe it will be possible to skim!

I think the list is not "cards that are popular" but "cards that are a surprise". It's important for players to be familiar with events/operations like Scorched Earth and Account Siphon so they can adequately prepare.

It also means if they are about to run on a trap (or significantly harmful ice), they know what they might hit to make an informed decision, rather than get destroyed by something they didn't expect.

I think the list is not "cards that are popular" but "cards that are a surprise". It's important for players to be familiar with events/operations like Scorched Earth and Account Siphon so they can adequately prepare.

It also means if they are about to run on a trap (or significantly harmful ice), they know what they might hit to make an informed decision, rather than get destroyed by something they didn't expect.

Exactly. I'm not going to tell a new corp player to watch out for Personal Workshop or Wyldside, because once those cards hit the table they can read them and see what they do. On the other hand, I would tell a new runner about Junebug, because if they run into it on turn one they'll feel cheated, and rightly so.

Exactly. I'm not going to tell a new corp player to watch out for Personal Workshop or Wyldside, because once those cards hit the table they can read them and see what they do. On the other hand, I would tell a new runner about Junebug, because if they run into it on turn one they'll feel cheated, and rightly so.

I disagree about PW. It's not the text that's the problem - it's the emergent properties. Installing cards in the middle of a run is a huge paradigm shift.

Exactly. I'm not going to tell a new corp player to watch out for Personal Workshop or Wyldside, because once those cards hit the table they can read them and see what they do. On the other hand, I would tell a new runner about Junebug, because if they run into it on turn one they'll feel cheated, and rightly so.

I disagree about PW. It's not the text that's the problem - it's the emergent properties. Installing cards in the middle of a run is a huge paradigm shift.

You're probably right in this specific case, but I think the spirit of what he said is both true and directly relevant to the purpose of his list. If the card hits the table and you get to read it before it wrecks the game so that you can be aware of what's going on, it won't feel like a cheat like getting blasted by Scorched Earth will if you didn't know about the card and could've drawn a card to prevent death on your previous click instead of taking a credit. I think the OP did a good job of showcasing cards that could cause the reaction in a player that was a new Netrunner but an otherwise experienced gamer of "WTF? I just lost the game because I didn't know a card existed that could do that."

I'd argue even in the case of Personal Workshop that if you're experienced with card games, not having a click symbol in front of the pay-it-off-early ability should trigger alarm bells in your head.

Actually, to the OP: maybe that's a good way to round out your list. There are a couple of rules to be aware of in the game that can finish off a lot of the remaining awareness issues.

1) Both sides should be aware of any cards on the table with abilities that don't have "[Click]" as an activation cost.

2) Runner should be aware when accessing cards that they are accessed one at a time in order, and that all of them must be accessed once an accessible set is determined (that last wording was very deliberate to include the "choose a number of extras" clause of Medium).

I'm sure there are a few other other things that might go in the "final surprising things to be aware of" list, but the one etherial alluded to is probably the best one.

I disagree about PW. It's not the text that's the problem - it's the emergent properties. Installing cards in the middle of a run is a huge paradigm shift.

I agree that a new player will probably see personal workshop as simply an economy card, instead of seeing its full potential. If I were playing runner against a new player, I'd probably explain the card when I played it, simply because it's complicated. That's also true of False Lead, all the fast advance cards, E3 Feedback Implants, and a number of other cards. I'd contend you don't have to know about them before the game starts though.

Vamp - not quite as financially beneficial as Account Syphon, but it's open-ended nature (pay X to force Corp to lose X) can be an even nastier surprise if you have built up a stock of credits only to have them all drained away by a cash-rich runner.

Hmm, that's borderline. Datasucker often floats around for a couple turns before it suddenly gets big and punches through. It's an amazing card, but usually it doesn't come as a surprise. On the other hand, if the runner has a grimoire and a bunch of fixed strength breakers, then playing a datasucker from hand can suddenly make the difference.

I dunno, do you guys think of datasucker as a surprise card?

well you might think your tollbooth/viper is good enough, then the runner installs datasucker first turn, runs your archive for free, then breaks through. it might force you to ice archive preemptively

Most of these are already permanently ingrained in my mind, but from time to time I still run on Jinteki R&D with only 1 credit like a complete idiot, and Fetal AI just gets me.

I would add all the trap activation costs in their respective sections: 1 for Junebug, 2 for Secretary, 3 for Edge. I would also add that because Snare! tags the runner, they should not run on unadvanced cards/R&D/HQ on their last click if they want to avoid tags.